Morgan Wallen Boycots The Grammys Amid Longstanding Business Tensions

Morgan Wallen doesn’t need a Grammy, actually. The nation celebrity’s group confirmed this week that he is not going to be submitting his newest album, “I’m the Downside,” or any of its 37 songs for consideration on the upcoming Grammy Awards. The transfer underscores Wallen’s rocky relationship with the music trade’s gatekeepers. Regardless of his plain chart dominance, he’s lengthy been met with skepticism or outright rejection from awards our bodies and insiders who’ve saved him at arm’s size. Morgan Wallen is hardly the primary artist to rebuff the Recording Academy. The Weeknd and Jay-Z have each refused to submit their work in recent times, citing a scarcity of recognition and frustration with what they see as an out-of-touch establishment.

Morgan Wallen’s strained relationship is mirrored in his awards report. Wallen has solely two Grammy nominations to his identify, each from his 2024 collaboration with Put up Malone, and has by no means been acknowledged for his solo work. On the CMA Awards, he’s gained simply twice, far fewer than artists of comparable stature.

When he did lastly take house the coveted Entertainer of the Yr honor final yr, he was noticeably absent from the ceremony. Months later, he casually posted a sideways image of the trophy in an Instagram dump, barely acknowledging the milestone.

Whereas Wallen hasn’t defined why he’s opting out of this yr’s Grammy competition, collaborators like Put up Malone, Tate McRae, and Eric Church, who every seem on tracks from the album, nonetheless have the choice to submit their joint songs on their very own. Whether or not they’ll stays to be seen.

Historical past reveals Wallen isn’t alone in pushing again in opposition to the Grammys. In 2024, Jay-Z returned to the ceremony after skipping it on quite a few events, and after calling it out straight in his 2018 observe “Apesh-t.”

Whereas accepting the Dr. Dre International Impression Award, the rapper addressed the Grammys’ long-standing points with overlooking Black artists. He particularly highlighted his spouse Beyoncé’s observe report, claiming that regardless of holding the title because the most-awarded Grammy winner of all time, she has by no means gained Album of the Yr.

“The reality is, we grew up eager to be on the Grammys, and it was our objective. We simply need them to get it proper. That’s what we wish,” Jay-Z mentioned in his speech, drawing applause for the candid acknowledgment.

Jay-Z isn’t the one main artist to name out the Grammys.

Forward of the 2021 ceremony, The Weeknd overtly blasted the Recording Academy after being snubbed from each single class, regardless of releasing his chart-topping album “After Hours,” which included the record-breaking hit “Blinding Lights.”

“I exploit a sucker punch as an analogy,” he advised Billboard later that yr. “As a result of it simply sort of hit me out of nowhere.”

For Wallen, the choice could also be much less about defiance and extra about indifference. The singer has develop into one of the crucial constant hitmakers in music, not simply nation. He’s a fixture on the Billboard charts, the place his albums and singles linger for months on finish.

That dominance hasn’t been with out turbulence. Wallen’s profession has been marred by scandal. In 2021, he was caught on video utilizing a racial slur, leading to a one-year ban from the CMA Awards. In 2024, he pleaded responsible to misdemeanor reckless endangerment after police accused him of throwing a chair from a rooftop bar in Nashville.